A quote by Alfred Mercier

Author: John LeMasney. As a supporter and fan of libraries and librarians, I find it a privilege and honor to be able to post on Library Garden. I also sometimes find it just the slightest bit intimidating. I’m always just a little bit reluctant to post something that I think might be too far outside of the librarian’s perspective. At the same time, I’ve been working closely with libraries in New Jersey and elsewhere for the last 3 or 4 years as a presenter, trainer and consultant, and I love the topics that I’ve been able to put into my personal Venn diagram with Libland.

Topics such as technology, design, blogging, open source, outreach, and learning all have been focus points for my work with libraries, but my favorite by far has been design. As a result, for the posts I’ve created here at LG, I’ve made them about design. In order to increase and maintain my posting numbers here, I’ve decided that I’m going to not only write about design, but to actually do relevant designs for this blog. As inspiration, I’ve discovered many pages of quotes about libraries, learning, media, and librarians that I thought would be the perfect muse for illustration.

This is the first of what I hope will be well received posts in this vein. Mercier’s quote here about indelibly learning that which is pleasurable rings very true in my experience, and I thought you, dear reader, might agree, so I’m sharing the thought with you.

This was made in the open source illustration package called Inkscape. I typed out the quote in several single word blocks in order to have the most flexibility with their placement and manipulation. I kerned each word very tightly, as to add some speed to the reading. The font, one of my all time favorites, is Gill Sans. I added several rectangles overlapping in the background, in various woodland hues and tints, and then converted them to paths, so that I could add curves to them. Finally, I added translucent gradients to each of the blocks to create a misty effect.

You might wonder (or at least that’s my nagging suspicion) how this relates, exactly, to libraries. I’d say that if you do design in your work of attracting patrons to programs, and maintaining posters or fliers, that it very directly relates to you. I’d go further to say that if you’re using Word or Publisher to do that work, you’d have a rather difficult time of doing this particular design there, despite the fairly simple design. Even if you don’t recognize doing (or feel that you) design directly in your work, I’d argue that everyone who faces a blank page on a screen makes design decisions. That’s probably you.

Part of the message I’m trying to send is that some of the best tools in life are free (as in cost, and in freedom) and that with just a few key skills, you can greatly improve your designs. Another part is that what we learn with pleasure, we never forget. Another part is that I firmly believe that design can change your life, bring you pleasure, and alter how you see the world forever.

2 Comments

So when you are going to set up a site where I can buy framed print of your work??? Seriously, it can’t just be me who’s blown away by what you’re creating daily at http://365sketches.wordpress.com/, as well as your contributions to LG. Thanks for sharing, once again, not only your creations, but your process, and encouragement. Feeling inspired!

Thanks very much for your encouragement, Peter! I’m glad (especially glad) that you liked this post. I’ve been looking into this issue, actually, as I’ve gotten a few requests. I love that. Right now I have a cafepress set up, but it’s not quite right for prints. I’m looking at moo.com, blurb.com, lulu.com, mpix.com, and some others — the most promising so far is canvaspop.com. I imagine that sooner rather than later, I’ll have a way to browse and choose prints to send out. However, I’m definitely considering them as gifts. 😉

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